Description
Grubhub Inc. is an American online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery platform that connects diners with local restaurants. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois and was founded in 2004. As of 2019, the company had 19.9 million active users and 115,000 associated restaurants across 3,200 cities and all 50 states in the United States. Grubhub Seamless went public in April 2014 and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "GRUB".
On June 9, 2020, Just Eat Takeaway, a European food delivery service, announced an agreement to buy Grubhub for $7.3 billion in stock.
History
Chicago-based Grubhub was founded in 2004 by Mike Evans, Roman Gaskill, and Matt Maloney, to create an alternative to paper menus. Two years later, in 2006, Maloney and Evans won first place in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business's Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge with the business plan for Grubhub.
In November 2007, Grubhub secured $1.1 million in Series A funding, led by Amicus Capital and Origin Ventures for the purpose of expanding into San Francisco and New York markets. In March 2009, Grubhub earned $2 million in Series B funding, led by Origin Ventures and Leo Capital, which was followed by $11 million in Series C funding, led by Benchmark Capital in November 2010. $20 million in Series D funding was raised (led by DAG Ventures) in March 2011.
Grubhub's portfolio of brands includes Seamless, AllMenus, MenuPages, LevelUp, and Tapingo. Seamless is an online and mobile food ordering platform for regional restaurants active in the U.S. and London.
In September 2011, Grubhub secured $50 million in Series E funding and acquired New York-based competitor Dotmenu, the parent company of Allmenus and Campusfood. Grubhub completed the acquisition of AllMenus that month. MenuPages was acquired by Seamless in September 2011.
DiningIn, an online ordering and food delivery company based in Brighton, Massachusetts, was acquired by Grubhub in February 2015. Restaurants on the Run, a corporate food delivery company based in Aliso Viejo, California, was acquired by Grubhub in February 2015.
In December 2015, Grubhub acquired Delivered Dish, a restaurant delivery service in seven markets across the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, including Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, Portland, El Paso and Albuquerque. LAbite, a Los Angeles-based restaurant delivery service, was acquired by Grubhub in May 2016.
In August 2017, Grubhub entered into an agreement to acquire Eat24 from Yelp for $287.5 million, subject to regulatory review. In October 2017, Grubhub announced that had it completed its acquisition of Eat24. In late 2018 Grubhub shut down the Eat24 brand.
Certain assets were acquired from 11 franchisee-owned OrderUp markets in September 2018. Certain assets from 27 OrderUp markets had already been acquired in 2017. GrubHub completed its acquisition of OrderUp in October 2018.
LevelUp, a Boston-based diner engagement and payment solutions platform was acquired by Grubhub in September 2018. The acquisition of LevelUp was for a reported or $390 million cash. Tapingo, a San Francisco-based platform for campus food ordering was acquired by Grubhub in November 2018.
By mid 2020, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic where demand for services delivering food from restaurants and takeaways surged, Grubhub announced it was keeping its drivers safe by offering contact-free delivery as well as the option to order pickup for anyone who feels more comfortable getting the food themselves.
Delivery
In June 2014, Grubhub began offering delivery for restaurants that don't operate their own delivery service. As of 2016, the company was delivering in more than 50 markets across the U.S. In July 2018, Grubhub announced that had it expanded its delivery capabilities to 28 new cities in the US.
Grubhub's UK competitors are Deliveroo, Just Eat, and UberEATS. In the U.S. its competitors include Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, EatStreet, Amazon Restaurants and Online Restaurants.
In February 2020, the company announced the launch of its new Grubhub+ monthly subscription program, which offers free, unlimited food delivery from partner restaurants for monthly fee.
